GRAMIKEM. (GRASS FAMILY.) 583 



64. Al\DEOFd<SOW, L. Beakd-Grass. 



Spikelets in pairs upon each joint of the slender rhachis, spiked or racemed; 

 one of tliem pedicelled and sterile, often a mere vestige : the other sessile, with 

 the lower flower neutral and of a single palea; the upper perfect and fertile, of 

 2 thin and hyaline paleae shorter than the herbaceous or chartaceous glumes, the 

 lower awned from the tip. Stamens 1-3. Grain free. — Coarse and mostly 

 rigid perennial Grasses, with lateral or terminal spikes commonly clustered or 

 digitate ; the rhachis hairy or plumose-bearded, and often the sterile or stami- 

 uate flowers also (whence the name, composed of avj)p, avbpos, man, and wcoyoov, 

 beard). 



# Sterile spikelel stamhmte (stamens 3), aimless: spikes digitate. 



1. A. fili'CatllS, Muhl. Culms (4° high) and leaves nearly smooth, 

 bearing 3-5 straight and rather rigid hairy spikes together at the naked summit 

 (or fewer on lateral branches) ; spikelets approximated, roughish-downy ; awn 

 bent. — Sterile soil ; common. Sept. 



* * Sterile spikelet neutral, reduced to a small pointed glume raised on a long bearded 

 pedicel ; the fertile 2 - 3-androus, bearing a slender mostly bent or twisted awn : culms 

 paniculate-branched. 



2. A. SCOparfsas, Michx. Culms slender (2° -4° high), with many pa- 

 niculate branches ; the lower sheaths and the narrow leaves hairy ; spikes mostly 

 single, terminating the short branches, pednncled, very loose, slender (2' long, often 

 purple), sparsely silky with dull white hairs; the zigzag rhachis hairy along the 

 edges; pairs of spikelets rather distant. — Sterile or open sandy soil ; common. 

 July - Sept. 



3. A. argenteaiS, Ell. Calms rather slender (about 3° high) ; spikes in 

 pairs, on a peduncle exceeding the sheaths, dense, very silky with long white hairs 

 (l^'-2' long) ; rudimentary flower much shorter than the hairs of its pedicel. — 

 Sterile soil, Virginia, Illinois? and southward. Sept., Oct. — Spikes much 

 denser, and the flowers larger and more silky, than in the next; which it con- 

 siderably resembles. 



# * * Sterile spikelet abortive, reduced to a 7ttere awn-like, plumose pedicel, or bearing 

 distinct rudiment of a flower ; the fertile \-androus, and bearing a straight slender 

 awn : spikes clustered, lateral and terminal, partly enclosed in the flattened bract- 

 like sheaths; the slender rhachis, $-c. clothed with copious, very long and silky 



(ivhite) hairs. 



4. A. Vil'gilliCBlS, L. Culm flatfish below, slender, sparingly short- 

 branched above (3° high) ; sheaths smooth ; spikes 2 or 3 together in distant oppressed 

 clusters, weal and soft (!' long). — Sandy soil ; Massachusetts to Illinois, and 

 southward. Sept. 



5. A. macroums, Michx. Culm stout (2° -3° high), bushy-branched at 

 the summit, loaded with numerous spikes forming dense Icajy clusters; sheaths 

 rough, the upper hairy. — Low grounds, New York to Virginia, near the coast, 

 and southward. Sept., Oct. 



